Recession is good for the soul

re: Recession is good for the soul

VibhuTi — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:53:08 GMT

I love your article. Being just in 12th grade it might be not as hard hitting as for the others who have commented above. But there is one thing you forgot to mention.. recession is good for a short period of time.. just for a reality check.. not for a prolonged period.. every thing in life teaches you something and recession would flush down those values which you had.. and you lost the old spirit of saving.. carpooling etc

re: Recession is good for the soul

Cora — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:15:53 GMT

I am a 64 yr old, living on less than $600.00 a month. Do I get by-? Yes,but usually without grocerries in my fridge. It's not my extravgant living it is my medicines that eat up my paychecks.I live in a senior apt that is HUD substidised so my rent is very reasonable and my car was a gift from my daughter so no car payments. I do still smoke-expensive habit but also one hard to break. I have a $60.00 a month pension but who knows how long it will exist. Social Security is still safe but for how long? But I will survive as we all will if we just tighten our belts a little. Dont know what I can cut out besides my cigarettes,but I will do that if I have too. Just hang in there it will get better. May take a while. One thing though this country will never survive another depression. People now a days are too spoiled to survive the way my grandmother and her generation did. No one would barter and no one would share. That is the sad part of being over indulgent.

re: Recession is good for the soul

John — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:38:03 GMT

I still don't get it... Why don't the bloggers recognize the majority of people who paid their bills, saved money all their life, drove 5 year old vehicles like we did understand that we've been suckered. WE put thousands of dollars away in our advosed mutual funds, 401's and now they are worth half of what they should be because the selfesh idiots stole our money. Do you not understand that the money didn't just disappear from earth, it went into their accounts from yours as they bet on stocks through short selling, also pumped up the markets on Wall Street in the morning and then sold off millions in the afternoon!!! And, where did the money go, out of your account into theirs... If you lost money it was because somebody made it at your expense!

re: Recession is good for the soul

Starraker — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:43:25 GMT

Stock Market is the reason for all of our woes . The prime focus of a company now is to make a profit for it's shareholders. Not making an American product. In addition, the glamorizing of the career of ""money merchant " and the fantasy we bought of letting your money to work for you . Instead of providing an honest days work or product for compensation. Ultimately ,this meant outsourcing to other countries so that the folks wanting their money to work for them instead of they working hard for their money ,could make a profit on their investments. Once the jobs left , it was difficult for people to take the reality of downsizing their "American dream life" and credit allowed us to begin deceiving ourselves . 401K's became a way of selling ourselves a future based on illusion .

My friends, a good dose of reality is what we need and we still haven't seen it yet . The bailout will only stall the inevitible .. We must change , the governments around the world need to readjust what it means to be solvent and what it really means to be real and we as a people need to restore the old -fashioned work ethic of the great people that built this country on their backs .

re: Recession is good for the soul

Mark in debt — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:40:19 GMT

Well, it’s probably time for someone who is on the other side of the fence to pipe in. That would be me. Since I graduated from college in 1982 I have always lived beyond my means, getting away with it because my income was increasing fast enough to cover it. I bought in to credit culture 100%. Over the last couple of years, that blind, self-indulgent lifestyle has come back to roust. I’ve hit a career ceiling, I’m burdened with ruinous debt, and my engineering specialty is disappearing. My one sensible financial effort, my 401K, has lost 60% of its value. The tempting response is to blame the voracious credit issuers, lax government regulation, mortgage madness, etc. but the cold, hard truth is that my situation is entirely my own fault. The one saving grace is that I did not drag anyone down (e.g. spouse, kids) with me. So it is gut check time. Now I have to learn all the sensible money management skills a blithely ignored, liquidate most of my possessions to pay down debt, and downscale my lifestyle. Failure to do this will lead to bankruptcy in short order. So to all those wise and frugal folks who are in a good position to weather these economic crises, I say “Congratulations, you were right.”

re: Recession is good for the soul

Ve of Florida — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:39:21 GMT

I agree with everyone..My husband and I work full time, have 3 children and it's very hard. We pay everything with cash and rent a nice home, I would love to buy it's the american dream but when people live beyond their means and overextend themself it effects everyone down the line. Mabye if the parents quit buying their kids everything they want, Ipods...expensive cell phones..expensive clothes etc..they would appreciate the value of a dollar and hopefully our next generation will not follow in these tipes of spending footsteps. Yea our washing machine is broken, guess what we go to the laundry mat and do our wash and bring it home to dry instead of going out and charging one right away. I'd rather live simply that having creditors breathing down my neck for money that I don't have because I have overextended myself. Hopefully alot of people will wake up now.

re: Recession is good for the soul

Charles Bailey, Jr. — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:25:46 GMT

Everyone is right on when it comes to living within their means and I applaud each one of you who still have ethical values and are not caught up in the big idea of society. I am a 23 year old senior who is very concerned about the market and the direction in which our country is headed. One of my major problems with what is going on in the financial market right now is bailing out all of these business men who have driven 100+ year old businesses into the ground and are able to bailout with millions of dollars. What does this tell our future generations about morals? As a country we need to re-evaluate our founding principles and return to a God fearing nation in which people seek Him for answers not the media or hollywood.

re: Recession is good for the soul

A very lucky person... — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:29:43 GMT

I live in California and in my community there was so many new homes going up, and people buying homes they could not afford i kept saying how are they paying for these homes...well now i know they just made a few payments and those homes are now in foreclosure and the homeowners are long gone...the big two story homes are empty and the yards are dried up and ugly...the ones that managed to kept up on the payments now have up side down mortgages they own about twice what the property is worth...the property taxes are unreal on those home some pay $4000 to $5000 or more a year on them...so i knew a recession was coming something had to give you cant keep blowing air into a ballon....i sat tight on my home i have had for 25 years i didnt re finance it or take any loans out on so now its been paid for the past 5 years no credit card debt either..my pension and social security do me just fine, also i dont drive anymore so no car payment or car insurance or gas to buy...life is good....

re: Recession is good for the soul

kitty — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:49:55 GMT

Notice a few really angry people here. People who have worked hard, saved, done things the "American" way and feel like they keep getting shafted.

Know that you are not alone.

We can turn this around, but it will take hard work (you've already proven you are willing and able to work hard) and organization. Don't stop at just getting mad. Do what you can, but reach out to others who feel and think as you do. We're out there.

re: Recession is good for the soul

kitty — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:46:15 GMT

ech from baltimore wrote:

one last thing folks in the future try not to ever vote for a millionaire.............

**********************************************************************

Wise words, ech.

Don't know about where you live, but where I live that's all we have to choose from. And of course for the Presidential slot, maybe we can get someone who's not a millionaire in 2012. I doubt it, we had a few good non-millionaires running this time around. And look what happened?